AP Psych Unit 4 (4.4): Psychodynamic Theories of Personality

Personality Psychology

The scientific study of the whole person - their unique and consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Psychodynamic Psychology

Formed under Sigmund Freud, this perspective believes unconscious processes drive our personality, our dreams, and the decisions we make.

Free Association Techniques

Freud’s tactics he’d utilize as a therapist, where he would ask his client to speak in a flow of consciousness state, hoping he could gain access to their unconscious mind.

The Unconscious Mind

Freud compared the mind to an iceberg, where only a small portion is readily accessible; the majority of our feelings, memories, and thought processes are hidden even from the self.

Id

Unconscious, pleasure principle, seeks immediate gratification of basic drives and desires without considering consequences or social norms.

Ego

Conscious, the reality principle. Mediates between the Id (desires) and the Superego (strict moral demands) in a socially acceptable way.

Superego

Partially conscious and unconscious, the morality principle. Represents internalized moral standards and societal rule from childhood, and suppresses the Id.

Free Association

In psychoanalytic therapy, the unconscious is explored when the client relaxes and says to the therapist whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing.

“Freudian Slip”

When we say the wrong thing out loud, but to Freud, it’s the truth surfacing.

Defense Mechanisms

Freud proposed that the ego protects itself with these, tactics that reduce or redirect anxiety by distorting reality.

Denial

Functions to protect the ego from things with which the individual cannot cope.

Displacement

Involves taking out our frustrations, feelings, and impulses on people or objects that are less threatening than what is causing them. (Good Example: Displaced Aggression)

Repression

Involves unconsciously blocking or pushing away uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, memories, or impulses from conscious awareness.

Regression

When confronted by stressful events, people sometimes cope by unconsciously reverting to an earlier stage of development or less mature behavior.

Unconscious Process

People don’t deliberately choose to regress; it happens automatically as a coping strategy.

Sublimation

When a person channels or redirects unacceptable impulses, desires, or emotions of the Id into socially acceptable or productive activities.

Reaction-Formation

When a person unconsciously expresses the opposite of their true feelings or desires in an exaggerated or overcompensated way to avoid dealing with a negative or uncomfortable emotion.

Projection

Involves taking our own unacceptable qualities or feelings and ascribing them to other people.

Rationalization

Involves a person justifying/explaining their actions, thoughts, or feelings in a way that makes them seem more acceptable or logical, even though the real reasons may be different or less flattering.

Interpretation of Dreams

Dreams were thought to be reflections of our unconscious mind.

Manifest Content

Surface-level storyline remembered of a dream.

Latent Content

Represents the underlying hidden meaning symbolzed within the manifest content.

Projective Tests

Uses people’s subjective interpretations of ambiguous art to examine a person’s personality characteristics and emotional functioning and unconscious attitudes and motivations.

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Projective test in which people create an entire story for an ambiguous piece of art, indirectly expressing their inner feelings, fears, and interests.

Rorschach Inkblot Test (By Hermann Rorschach)

The most widely used projective test, uses random symmetrical ink blots as the point of analysis.